Charles Campbell May

Charles Campbell May (27 July 1889-1 July 1916) was a Captain in the British Army who was killed in action at the Battle of the Somme during World War I.

Biography
Charles Campbell May was born in Drimeden Otagow, New Zealand on 27 July 1889, and he and his family moved to England in 1902. May married Bessie Maude Holl in February 1912 at the age of 23. On 12 January 1915, he enlisted in the British Army during World War I, becoming a Captain in the Manchester Regiment, 22nd Battalion. On 11 November 1915, he was deployed to France and Belgium, and he secretly kept a diary of his experiences, a crime punishable by court-martial. On 17 June 1916, just before the Battle of the Somme, he wrote a diary entry addressed to his wife, sharing his love for her in case he died; he ended it by writing, "My darling, au revoir. It may well be that you will only have to read these lines as ones of passing interest. On the other hand, they may well be my last message to you. If they are, know through all your life that I loved you and baby with all my heart and soul, that you two sweet things were just all the world to me. I pray God I may do my duty, for I know, whatever that may entail, you would not have it otherwise." On 1 July 1916, he was mortally wounded by a German shell and died of his wounds three hours later, one of the 379 soldiers from his regiment who were killed in action at the Somme that same day.